FAMED botanist Dr Margaret Bradshaw has so far braved blazing heat and relentless showers during her 88-mile horse-riding trek to help save rare plants in the upper dale.
She passed the half-way mark during a ride with fellow ecologist Trisha Snaith around Morley, Butterknowle and Hamsterley. The ride also marked the half-way stage of her fundraising target being exceeded. Dr Bradshaw, 95, said: “We have more than £3,000 but there is a bit more coming in with cheques and whatnot.”
The cash will be used by her charity, Teesdale Special Flora Research Conservation Trust, to carry on surveying a decline in rare upper dale flowers such as spring gentian, yellow saxifrage and alpine cinquefoil. The trust landed a grant of £222,000 from the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund to continue the survey and to find ways of protecting the plants.
However, Dr Bradshaw said the cash would not be available until October and would cover 2022, so her current fundraising was needed to continue the survey in the meantime.
She added that as part of the grant her trust would employ an “outreach person” to get more volunteers involved.
Of her fundraising ride, she said: “It has been okay.
“We keep clocking up eight or nine miles each time we go out. I have had a hectic week so we will increase the miles.
“We didn’t ride last week because it was too wet, but it has been alright otherwise.
“I have got fitter and I’ve been doing more trotting.”
People can support the ride by visiting justgiving.com/
campaign/teesdalespcialflora and follow the progress on Facebook by searching for Dr ME Bradshaw’s Teesdale Special Flora Research and Conservation Trust.
